Eventually, the villagers discover outsourcing, so they’re free to work on building casinos.

The WarChiefs expansion pack for the Age of Empires III real-time strategy game adds three new civilizations: the Iroquois Confederacy, the Sioux Nation, and the Aztec Empire. Each has a Tribal Council (similar to a Home City) and a powerful WarChief. The well-rounded Iroquois produce artillery and siege units. The speedy Sioux start the game with a full population that’s unable to build walls for their encampment. The Aztecs are focused only on a strong infantry, with their elite troops laying waste to buildings and cavalry alike.

The WarChief unit has special attacks, higher health points, and a battle aura that can enhance surrounding friendly units. Send your villagers to the new Fire Pits and, as they dance, you can enhance your WarChief, increase gathering speed, spawn unique units, and more.

The Europeans also get some spiffy new units (spies and horse artillery), and a saloon for mercenary units (powerful artillery and ninjas). Europeans can also start a Revolution in the fourth age, which changes the card deck to only four very powerful cards (Gatling Gun, Ironclad Ships, and so on). Since all your villagers are converted to Militia without the ability to spawn new villagers, you better have a stockpile of resources and most of the trading posts to support the demand.

The two-act single-player campaign follows the Black family story during the American Revolution (with Washington as a playable unit) and the battle of Little Big Horn. Each act starts out with the typical army building to conquer, but the plot twists. In one mission, you build up a settlement, then the story has you change sides and destroy what you previously built.

We encountered some bugs joining a GameRanger multiplayer game and a couple of random crashes, but hopefully MacSoft will have a patch out soon. Deathmatch and Supremacy are the only multiplayer modes, which is disappointing when other games offer modes such as Capture the Flag and King of the Hill.

The bottom line. The WarChiefs is a worthy expansion pack to Age of Empires III. For addicts, it’s a must-have.

COMPANY: MacSoft

CONTACT: www.destineerstudios.com

PRICE: $34.99

REQUIREMENTS: 1.4GHz G4 or faster or Intel processor, Mac OS 10.3.9 or later, 512MB RAM, original Age of Empires III game

Three new playable civilizations. New European units. New cards and maps. Universal binary.

No new multiplayer game modes.